Australian Sojourn – April-May 2024

Part 3: Hanging Rock

My 2024 Australian sojourn continues! . . .

Last Wednesday I travelled from “Australia’s oldest inland city” of Goulburn to the geological site of Hanging Rock in rural Victoria. Accompanying me on this trip was my Minnesota friend Kate.

This was my fourth visit to Hanging Rock. My first was in 1985 as a 19-year-old college student; my second was in April of 2003, during a visit home to Australia from the U.S.; and the third was during my May 2016 Australian sojourn (documented here).

My interest in and attraction to Hanging Rock began when, as a 10-year-old boy in Australia, I saw Peter Weir’s film Picnic at Hanging Rock. This was in 1975, when Weir’s adaptation of Joan Lindsay's novel (also titled Picnic at Hanging Rock) was first released. Both Lindsay’s book and Weir’s film tell the story of a group of students from an exclusive girls’ boarding school who mysteriously vanish from a picnic at the Rock on St. Valentine’s Day 1900. Weir’s film is widely credited as a key work in the “Australian film renaissance” of the mid-1970s. It was also the first Australian film of its era to both gain critical praise and be given a substantial international theatrical release.

Often described as “lush,” “atmospheric,” and “Gothic,” the haunting qualities of Picnic at Hanging Rock certainly left a deep and long-lasting impression on me as a child. Later, as I grew into awareness of my sexuality, the film’s themes of oppression and liberation became meaningfully and appealingly apparent to me. I wrote the first version of my essay Rock of Ages: Theological Reflections on Picnic at Hanging Rock in 1996 for Vertigo, a journal of thought and reflection on sexuality and spirituality published by the theology department of the College of St. Catherine, St. Paul. A second version (which can be found at The Wild Reed here) was written in 2002 as part of my studies in film and theology at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.

For all these reasons, and for the sheer beauty and uniqueness of the place, Hanging Rock is a very special place for me; a sacred place, really.

Above: At Hanging Rock in 2016.

Here’s a little of what Wikipedia has to say about the “geological marvel” that is Hanging Rock:

Hanging Rock (also known as Dryden’s Mount or Dryden’s Rock, and to some Aboriginal Australians as Ngannelong) is a distinctive geological formation in central Victoria, Australia. A former volcano, it lies 718 metres above sea level on the plain between the two small townships of Newham and Hesket, approximately 70 km north-west of Melbourne and a few kilometres north of Mount Macedon.

In the middle of the 19th century, the original occupants of the area – tribes of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Woi Wurrung and Taungurung – were forced from it. They had been its occupants for thousands of years and, colonisation notwithstanding, continue to maintain cultural and spiritual connections to it.

In the late 20th century, the area became widely known as the setting of Joan Lindsay’s novel Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Attempts to uncover Hanging Rock’s Aboriginal name have proven difficult. Some think it is “Anneyelong” because of an inscription underneath an engraving of the rock made by German naturalist William Blandowski during an expedition in 1855–56. Historian and toponymist Ian D. Clark believes Blandowski misheard the name, and the word was possibly “Ngannelong” or something similar. The name ”Diogenes Mount” was bestowed on the rock by the surveyor Robert Hoddle in 1843, in keeping with the spirit of several ancient Macedonian names given by Major Thomas Mitchell during his expedition through Victoria in 1836, which passed close to Hanging Rock. Others include Mount Macedon, Mount Alexander, and the Campaspe River. Six other European names (Mount Diogenes, Diogenes’ Head, Diogenes Monument, Dryden’s Rock, Dryden’s Monument and Hanging Rock) have also been recorded.

Hanging Rock is a mamelon, created 6.25 million years ago by stiff magma pouring from a vent and congealing in place. Often thought to be a volcanic plug, it is not. Two other mamelons exist nearby, created in the same period: Camels Hump, to the south on Mount Macedon and, to the east, Crozier’s Rocks. All three mamelons are made of solvsbergite, a form of trachyte only found in two or three other places in the world. As Hanging Rock’s magma cooled and contracted it split into rough columns. These weathered over time into the many pinnacles that can be seen today.

The three mamelons demonstrate the mechanism of plate tectonics. As the Australian Plate moved northwards towards East Asia over 27 million years, it passed over a volcanic hotspot. This resulted in a chain of volcanoes stretching from Hillsborough (33 million years ago) in Northern Queensland to Hanging Rock (6.5 million years ago), which is part of the southernmost end of this volcanic activity. This chain also includes the Warrumbungles (New South Wales, 15.5 million years ago) and the Glass House Mountains (Southern Queensland, 24.3 million years ago). These volcanoes all have the same chemical composition.

Hanging Rock contains numerous distinctive rock formations, including the “Hanging Rock” itself (a boulder suspended between other boulders, under which is the main entrance path), the Colonnade, the Eagle, and the UFO. Hanging Rock’s highest point is 718 metres above sea level and 105 metres above the plain below.

. . . Hanging Rock is the centrepiece for the Hanging Rock Recreation Reserve, a public reserve managed by the Macedon Ranges Shire Council. The reserve includes a horse racing track, picnic grounds, creek, interpretation centre and cafe. The reserve is a habitat for endemic flora and fauna, including koalas, wallabies, possums, phascogales, wedge-tailed eagles and kookaburras.

Above: An image of Hanging Rock from the website of the Macedon Ranges Shire Council. (Photographer unknown)

Following are more images from my May 1, 2024 visit to Hanging Rock . . .

Above: My friend Kate at Hanging Rock – May 1, 2024.

On the steep southern facade the play of golden light and deep violet shade revealed the intricate construction of long vertical slabs; some smooth as giant tombstones, others grooved and fluted by prehistoric architecture of wind and water, ice and fire. Huge boulders, originally spewed red hot from the boiling bowels of the earth, now come to rest, cooled and rounded in forest shade.

– Joan Lindsay
Excerpted from Picnic at Hanging Rock
p. 29

As the vertical facade of the Rock drew nearer, the massive slabs and soaring rectangles repudiated the easy charms of its fern-clad lower slopes. Now outcrops of prehistoric rock and giant boulders forced their way to the surface above layers of rotting vegetation and animal decay: bones, feathers, birdlime, the sloughed skins of snakes; some with jagged horns and jutting spikes, obscene knobs and scabby carbuncles; others smoothly humped and rounded by the passing of a million years.

– Joan Lindsay
Excerpted from Picnic at Hanging Rock
p. 78

Upon its release, Picnic at Hanging Rock was praised for its atmospheric cinematography – one which captures beautifully and hauntingly, the unique colors, sounds and contours of the Australian bush.

The opening scene for instance, depicts a forest of eucalyptus trees shrouded in an impenetrable mantle of mist. Silently the mist settles, obscuring the trees but revealing the jagged escarpments and pinnacles of Hanging Rock, aglow in the early morning light.

It is an image that exudes a sense of paradox and mystery, for the towering bulk of volcanic rock appears to hover in space, to hang miraculously within the firmament as if suspended in a timeless realm. The silence accompanying this image is broken only by occasional bird song and by a faint yet ominous sound – the source of which seems to be the very core of the Rock itself.

It is a deeply primordal sound – one that will be echoed on the afternoon of the picnic when Miss McCraw’s attention is inexplicibly drawn from her book of trigonometry to the jutting crags of the Rock, and when the schoolgirls Miranda, Marion and Irma explore in awed fascination the time-encoded patterns and formations of the monolith. They are patterns that speak mesmerizingly of transcendence and timelessness, and formations that increasingly seem to invite passage to such realms.

– Michael Bayly
Excerpted from Rock of Ages:
Theological Reflections on Picnic at Hanging Rock

Directly ahead, the grey volcanic mass rose up slabbed and pinnacled like a fortress from the empty yellow plain. [They] could see the vertical lines of the rocky walls, now and then gashed with indigo shade, patches of grey green dogwood, outcrops of boulders even at this distance immense and formidable. At the summit, apparently bare of living vegetation, a jagged line of rock cut across the serene blue of the sky.

– Joan Lindsay
Excerpted from Picnic at Hanging Rock
p. 18

NEXT:
Family Time in Melbourne, Guruk, and Gunnedah


Australia Sojourn – April-May 2024
• Farewell Minnesota Spring
• Hello Australia Autumn!
• Bundanoon, Batemans Bay, Braidwood and Goulburn

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• A Season of Listening
• Hanging Rock (2016)
• Rock of Ages: Theological Reflections on Picnic at Hanging Rock
• Boorganna (Part I)
• Boorganna (Part II)
• On Sacred Ground
• “I Caught a Glimpse of a God”

Images of Hanging Rock: Michael J. Bayly (5/1/24), unless where otherwise noted.

Cylvia Hayes: “Why I’m Voting for Marianne Williamson”

Author and activist Marianne Williamson (pictured above) may have effectively wound-down her 2024 presidential campaign but she is still on the ballot in a number of primary states where many people remain committed to voting for her, even though the Democratic nomination has been clinched by incumbent Joe Biden. One of these people is the former First Lady of Oregon, Cylvia Hayes (right).

Following is an op-ed by Hayes, first published May 2 in The Bulletin.

___________________

Why I’m Voting for Marianne Williamson

By Cylvia Hayes

The Bulletin
May 2, 2024
Sadly, in this critical election we have two aged candidates who remain anchored to the past, at a time when America needs to focus on the future. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have won their party’s nomination and will be facing each other in the general election. Though the candidates are already locked in, there is still a way to inject into this campaign the real policy issues that must be courageously confronted if we are to secure a brighter future. The vehicle to do so is Marianne Williamson. Given the options we will be presented in November, a vote for Biden is the only sane choice and I will support him in the general election.

In the primary, however, I’m going to vote Marianne Williamson – a candidate I am actually excited about. Williamson has been a Democratic candidate for President for the entire election cycle but the Democratic National Committee has shut her out and mainstream media has refused to give her coverage. In other words, the national party and associated media have taken it upon themselves to decide which candidates the people get to hear from. This is one of the many reasons I’ve been outspoken about the need to evolve beyond the current two-party system and the relationship between political parties, money in elections, and corporate, for-profit media.

I’ve been tracking Marianne Williamson for years, have met her several times, and we have had detailed conversations. She is brilliant, savvy, and the only candidate speaking honestly about the deep, challenging systems change that we must undertake in order to solve pressing problems like economic inequality, homelessness, health care that is increasingly unaffordable, and climate change.

Here are some of the things she stands for and is committed to:

• An immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

• Reproductive freedom for all women.

• A 21st-century Economic Bill of Rights. (See her video on economic system change and fairness.)

• Declaring a Climate Emergency and getting serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

• A health care system that is focused on health, not just medical care – that is, a system that ensures everyone has timely access to quality, affordable health care, and to food, housing, child care, education, and a good job; all of which contribute to health.

Williamson correctly points out that though our founders established a government “of, for, and by the people”, what we now have is a government of, for, and by corporations – the very same corporations that essentially control both political parties and status quo politicians.

Marianne Williamson is on the ballot in 40 states (including Oregon) and if she gets 15% of the primary vote in any of those states she will earn delegates and be able to speak to the nation at the Democratic National Convention in August. Her message and policy proposals can infuse into the fall campaign, the critical issues that both Trump and Biden should be debating.

Giving Marianne Williamson this forum – that she has so far been denied – will serve the overall policy debate, other candidates, and the elected leaders who need to hear what she has to say.

Voting for Marianne Williamson in the primary election is not a vote that benefits Trump. It is a vote for a saner system and brighter future. And importantly, it is a vote for democracy.

– Cylvia Hayes
The Bulletin
May 3, 2024

Related Off-site Links:
Love, Democracy, and Gangster Politics – Marianne Williamson (Transform, May 5, 2024).
Marianne Williamson on Why She’s Fighting for Gen Z in This Election – Julia Merola (Her Campus, May 3, 2024).
One Season Passes and Another Begins – Marianne Williamson (Transform, April 11, 2024).
Marianne Williamson, Still in Democratic Presidential Bid, Says Campaign Isn’t About Winning: “There’s More Than the Horse Race” – Isabella Murray (ABC News, March 29, 2024).
Why I Keep Going – Marianne Williamson (Transform, March 16, 2024).
In Hopes of a Future Harvest – Marianne Williamson (Transform, March 13, 2024).
How Marianne Williamson’s Name Became the Placeholder for “Uncommitted” Protesters in Arizona – Alex Tabet (NBC News, March 19, 2024).
Primary Purpose and Power – Marianne Williamson (Transform, March 12, 2024).
Marianne Williamson Surprises by Coming In Second in Multiple States, Leapfrogging Dean Phillips – Timothy H.J. Nerozzi (Fox News, March 6, 2024).
I Remain in the Race – Marianne Williamson (Transform, March 6, 2024).
Marianne Williamson Returns to Presidential Race, Saying Biden Is Vulnerable Against Trump – Anders Hagstrom (Fox News, February 28, 2024).
Biden and Other Centrist Democrats Keep Bragging About the Economy. But Here’s the Problem – Perry Bacon Jr. (The Washington Post, February 20, 2024).



See also: Marianne 2024 Official Site | About | Issues | News | Events | Donate

For The Wild Reed’s coverage of Marianne Williamson’s 2024 presidential campaign, see the following chronologically-ordered posts:
• Marianne 2024
• Marianne Williamson Launches 2024 Presidential Campaign
• Progressive Perspectives on Marianne Williamson’s Presidential Run
• More Progressive Perspectives on Marianne Williamson’s Presidential Run
• Ben Burgis: Quote of the Day – March 10, 2023
• Despite the Undemocratic Antics of the DNC, Marianne Williamson Plans on “Winning the Nomination”
• The Biblical Roots of “From Each According to Ability; To Each According to Need”
• Marianne Williamson on The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton – 05/30/23
• Marianne Williamson’s Economic Bill of Rights
• Three Progressive Voices on the War in Ukraine
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 27, 2023
• Marianne Williamson on The Issue Is with Elex Michaelson – 07/20/23
• Voters, Not the DNC, Should Choose the Nominee
• Marianne Williamson in New Hampshire
• Marianne Williamson: “Repairing Our Hearts Is Essential to Repairing Our Country”
• Marianne Williamson on Trump’s Day in Court
• Marianne Williamson on NewsNation – 08/25/23
• Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson Joins NYC’s March to End Fossil Fuels
• Marianne Williamson on Your World – 10/6/23
• Marianne Williamson’s “Radical Idea” of Putting People First
• Marianne Williamson: “We Need to Disrupt the Corrupt”
• “We Are Surging”
• “Let the People Decide”: Marianne Williamson on the DNC’s Efforts to Deny and Suppress the Democratic Process
• Democratic Presidential Debate: Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips – 1/8/24
• The Democrats Challenging Biden
• Bannering for Marianne
• Campaigning for Marianne Williamson in New Hampshire – Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
• Marianne Williamson: “I Have Decided to Continue”
• Marianne Williamson in Nevada – 2/4/24
• Forever Grateful
• What Marianne Williamson Learned from Running for President
• Marianne Williamson: Playing It Big
• Minnesotans Launch Super Tuesday Push for “Suspended But Not Ended” Candidate Marianne Williamson
• A Welcome Return
• This Super Tuesday, Don’t Be “Uncommitted” . . .
• Super Tuesday in Minnesota
• Marianne Williamson, the Cassandra of U.S. Politics, on the “True State of the Union”
• Marianne Williamson in Arizona – 3/17/24
• “This Is the Moment”
• Marianne Williamson on Washington Journal (4/2/24) and The Letterhack (4/4/24)
• For Marianne Williamson, One Season Passes and Another Begins

See also:
• Marianne Williamson: “We Must Challenge the Entire System”
• Marianne Williamson on the Current Condition of the U.S.
• Marianne Williamson’s Politics of Love: The Rich Roll Interview
• Now Here’s a Voice I’d Like to Hear Regularly on the Sunday Morning Talk Shows
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• Marianne Williamson on the Tenth Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street
• Marianne Williamson on How Centrist Democrats Abuse Voters with False Promises
• “Two of the Most Dedicated and Enlightened Heroes of Present Day America”
• Deep Gratitude
• “A Beautiful Message, So Full of Greatness”
• Marianne Williamson: “Anything That Will Help People Thrive, I’m Interested In”
• Caitlin Johnstone: “Status Quo Politicians Are Infinitely ‘Weirder’ Than Marianne Williamson”

“Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was a recent guest on the Breaking Points podcast where she shared her perspective on a number of topics. These included the ongoing anti-genocide protests occuring across the U.S., the other non-bipartisan presidential candiates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, and the current Biden administration. It’s an interview that’s well worth checking out.






Related Off-site Links:
Jill Stein for President 2024.
War Parties, the Peace Candidate, and the November Election – Jeffrey D. Sachs (Other News, April 23, 2024).
Challenging the Duopoly: Jill Stein on Why She’s Running for U.S. President as Green Party Candidate – Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson (Geopolitical Economy Report, April 20, 2024).
Jill Stein Formally Launches 2024 White House Bid as Green Party Candidate – Robert Tait (The Guardian, November 21, 2023).
It’s Time to Build a Third Party – Anthony Pahnke (The Progressive, April 15, 2021).
U.S. Third Parties Can Rein In the Extremism of the Two-party System – Bernard Tamas (The Conversation, June 22, 2021)>
The Problem with “The Lesser of Two Evils” – Zachary Ludwick (The Uproar, November 2, 2020).
Jill Stein Challenges Hillary Clinton to Debate After “Russian Asset” Smear – Eoin Higgins (Common Dreams, October 18, 2019).
Investigating Jill Stein for Russian Collusion Decried as “Dangerous” and “Absurd” – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, December 19, 2017).
Democrats Are Still Obsessed With Jill Stein. They Should Start Obsessing Over Non-voters Instead – Meagan Day (The Week, June 19, 2017).
Did Third-Party Candidates Cost Hillary Clinton the Election? – Byron Tau (The Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2016).
Can They Count? – Blaming Third-Party Voters for Trump’s Win Isn’t Just Bad Politics. It’s Bad Math – Jonah Walters (Jacobin, November 29, 2016).
No, Ralph Nader Did Not Hand the 2000 Presidential Election to George W. Bush – Anthony Fisker (Reason, August 3, 2016).
The Fallacy of the Spoiler: Why the Machine Elites Fear Democracy – Richard Moser (CounterPunch, June 6, 2016).
Ralph Nader: The U.S. Political and Media System Is Designed to Obstruct and Silence Third-Party Candidates – Democracy Now! (May 10, 2016).

UPDATES: Jill Stein on America’s Democracy Crisis, Movement Building, and Ending Israel’s War on Palestinians – Azad Essa (Middle East Eye, August 15, 2024).
Democrats Crush Democracy by Cutting Out Political Competition in Swing States – M.D. Kittle (The Federalist, August 23, 2024).
Call the Greens an “Independent Party,” Not “Third Party”: Jill Stein – Rich Johnson (NewsNation, August 31, 2024).
Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Says the Green Party Has Transformed Political Agendas – Meghan Bowman (WMNF.org, September 3, 2024).
Interview: Dr. Jill Stein on AOC’s Instagram Attack, Green Party Challenges and Victories, and More – Glenn Greenwald (System Update with Glenn Greenwald, September 10, 2024).
Why Muslims Should Vote for the Green Party with Dr Jill Stein – Muhammad Jalal (The Thinking Muslim, October 27, 2024).
Yes, They’re Really Voting for Jill Stein – Aymann Ismail (Slate, October 30, 2024).
Is Voting Third Party a Vote for Trump? – An Interview with Jill Stein – Let’s Just Talk with Hammi (October 31, 2024).
“Democrats Pretend to Be the Lesser Evil”: Jill Stein on the U.S. Election – Malika Bilal (The Take, November 1, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Thoughts on Cornel West’s 2024 Presidential Run
• The Big Switch
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season
• Will Democrats Never Learn?
• Celebrating Progressive Wins in the Midst of the Ongoing “War for the Future of the Democratic Party”
• Ricardo Levins Morales on the “Deepest Political Fault Line” Separating Democrats
• Marianne Williamson on the Movement for a People’s Party
• Nick Cruse: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is the Privileged Position”
• Progressive Perspectives on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
• “The Next Step Is a Green Step”: Cornel West Endorses Jill Stein (2016)
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making? (2016)
• Hope Over Fear: Voting Green

Australian Sojourn – April-May 2024

Part 2: Bundanoon, Batemans Bay, Braidwood and Goulburn

My 2024 Australian sojourn continued April 28-30 with a road-trip from Bundanoon to Goulburn, via Batesmans Bay and Braidwood. Accompanying me on this trip were my friends Kerry and Kate.

Following are some photos of our travels.

Above: While in the Southern Highlands town of Bundanoon, Kate and I stayed at the Bundanoon Hotel, built in 1922.



Left: A sweeping view of Morton National Park from a look-out just outside of Bundanoon.

Above: Typical Australian road signs.

Above: When in Batemans Bay we stayed at Quays Hotel.

Above: Dusk at Batemans Bay – Sunday, April 28, 2024.



Right: With my friend Kerry on Surf Beach, just south of Batemans Bay.

Above and below: Sunrise at Surf Beach – Monday, April 29, 2024.

Once again the earth has completed its 24-hour turnaround and again has come to face the brilliance of our sun-star. As its light floods the darkness of space, may the Spirit that sings its ageless song continuously in the cave of my heart now flood my heart with the rays of light eternal.

As the sounds of life begin this Monday, may my voice be one with the chorus of all creation which rejoices in the ripeness of autumn. May this morning prayer echo through my every deed of this new day.

– Edward Hays
Excerpted from “The Season of Autumn – Monday Morning Prayer”
in Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim
Forest of Peace Books, 1989

Above: Yellow-tailed black cockatoos depicted in the style of Indigenous Australians.

Notes Wikipedia:

The traditional custodians of the land surrounding Batemans Bay are the Walbunja people of the Yuin nation. The language spoken by the Walbunja people is Dhurga, one of the Yuin-Kuric languages. A number of sites in the region are considered culturally significant to the Walbunja people, such as Bhundoo [now generally known as the Clyde River Estuary].

Above: The Royal Mail Hotel in Braidwood, a New South Wales town inland from Batemans Bay.

Above: Kate and I enjoying lunch at Braidwood’s Royal Mail Hotel – Monday, April 29, 2024.

Above: A view of the starkly beautiful landscape between Braidwood and Goulburn.

Above: Goulburn, Australia’s oldest inland city and a place I once called home.

I lived and taught in Goulburn from 1988 until the end of 1993, prior to my relocation to the U.S. in January of 1994.

While in Goulburn this past Monday and Tuesday (April 29-30), I caught up with three of my former teaching colleagues – Mike, Gerry and Carmel (pictured below), at the Goulburn Workers Club. It was a very meaningful and enjoyable experience.

Above: Kate, my dear Minnesotan friend . . . and my traveling companion on this first week of my Australian sojourn – Goulburn, Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

On Wednesday, May 1, Kate and I left Goulburn and drove 7 hours south to Hanging Rock. On our way we stopped to visit the famous “Dog on the Tuckerbox,” just outside of the town of Gundagai.

NEXT:
Hanging Rock


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Farewell Minnesota Spring
• Hello Australia Autumn!
• A Season of Listening
• Journey to the Southern Highlands & Tablelands – Exeter and Mt. Alexandra (2017)
• Journey to the Southern Highlands & Tablelands – Bundanoon and the Sunnataram Forest Monastery (2017)
• Remnants of a Past Life (Part I)
• Remnants of a Past Life (Part II)
• Goulburn Revisited (2006)
• Goulburn Landmarks (2006)
• Goulburn Reunion (2006)
• The Southern Highlands (2007)
• Australian Sojourn – March 2015: Goulburn
• Australian Sojourn – May 2016: Goulburn
• Australian Sojourn – May 2017: Goulburn and Canberra
• Australian Sojourn – March 2023: Goulburn
• The Australian Roots of My Progressive Catholicism

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Judith Butler on the Ongoing Student Protests Against the Gaza Genocide

American philosopher and gender studies scholar Judith Butler was recently interviewed by The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain. In this interview, Butler shares her perspective on the growing protests taking place on U.S. college campuses and universities against the Israeli government’s ongoing genocidal violence against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Butler also shares her thoughts on the meaning of academic freedom.

I find it to be a very worthwhile interview; perhaps you will too. Following is an excerpt.

______________________

Very often when it comes to Israel–Palestine, we hear people say, “Well, it’s so complex.” I think for many of the young people, it’s not that complex. This is a genocidal violence being enacted against the Palestinian people in Gaza. And it is obvious and it is clear, and they have the footage and they circulate the footage and they know it.

They’re also reading: They’re getting the history of Zionism. They’re getting the history of occupation. They’re getting the history of Gaza. They’re learning online and in seminars and in their own colleges. And the mobilization is born of an unequivocal conviction – not just that the bombardments and killings, the loss now of over 34,000 Palestinian lives is horrific. Not just that, but the history of Zionism, the history of occupation, the structure of apartheid within the state of Israel, the fact that Palestinians remain stateless or living within administrative authorities that do not have full state powers and do not represent full political self-determination. And that even now, Palestinians who live within the state of Israel, within its current boundaries, they also are suffering harassment, violence, and second-class citizenship in many different ways.

I think that there is a broad educational effort happening here. And I like the fact that education is being mixed with activism because activism should be informed. And sometimes we see ill-informed instances, like somebody yelling, “Jews go back to Poland.” No, that’s not acceptable.

What does the liberation of Palestine mean? What does it look like? Well, in my view, it means that Palestinians and Jews and other inhabitants of that land will find a way to live together. Either next to each other or with one another, under conditions of radical equality, where occupation is dismantled and all the colonial structures associated with occupation is dismantled.

It doesn’t mean pushing Jews off the land. It does mean, in my mind and in many people’s minds, the taking down of settlements and the redistribution of that land to Palestinians who lived there. And it does mean, in my mind and in the mind of many others, a just way of thinking about the right of return for Palestinians who have suffered forcible exile and who wish to return to the lands or at least to the region, or to have compensation or acknowledgment for what they have suffered.

. . . [W]hat’s behind the slogan [“Free Palestine”]? . . . Yes, I want to free Palestine from colonization, from bombardment violence, from settlements, from military and police detention. I want to see freedom from all of those things. But then we also have to ask: Freedom to do what? What will freedom look like? How will it be organized? How will people live together in a free Palestine, or in a free Palestine–Israel, whatever it may be called, or in two states who will have to have a negotiated agreement or a federated model?

A lot of people have been thinking about this for a long time, so I think I would like to see more seminars in the street, seminars on college campuses that try to take apart the slogans – distinguish the hateful slogans, the ignorant ones, the antisemitic ones from those that are actually helping to realize justice and freedom and equality in that land.

So if we were to have another public seminar on these campuses where everybody is assembled, it should surely be on academic freedom as well. Academic freedom means that educators have a right to teach what they want, to build their own curriculum, to express their ideas without the interference of state and without the interference of donors.

But I think that’s also collapsing right now as donors, we see at Columbia University, are making threats to withdraw funds, that also happened at Harvard and elsewhere. Also state powers, governments pressuring universities to suppress the rights of speech and assembly that their students have. These are forms of interference in university and college environments that ought properly to be protected from that interference. That is what academic freedom is.

– Judith Butler
Excerpted from “Judith Butler Will Not Co-Sign
Israel’s Alibi for Genocide”
The Intercept
May 1, 2024

NEXT:
Kyle Kulinski: Quote of the Day
– May 23, 2024


Related Off-site Links:
Campus Crackdown: 300+ Arrested in Police Raids on Columbia and CCNY to Clear Gaza Encampments – Democracy Now! (May 1, 2024).
“Are We in a Police State?” Progressives Demand End to Crackdown on Campus Protests – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, May 1, 2024).
The Biden Administration's Hypocrisy on College Protests Must End – Edward Ahmed Mitchell and Shafiquil Mushna (Common Dreams, May 1, 2024).
Israeli Holocaust Scholar Omer Bartov on Campus Protests, Weaponizing Antisemitism, and Silencing Dissent – Democracy Now! (April 30, 2024).
Holocaust Survivor Tells Student Anti-Genocide Protesters: “Just Keep Doing It” – Bret Wilkins (Common Dreams, April 25, 2024).
Pro-Palestinian Campus Encampments Spread Nationwide Amid Mass Arrests at Columbia, NYU, and Yale – Democracy Now! (April 23, 2024).
“Collective Punishment”: As Gaza Assault Continues, Israel Ramps Up Violence in Occupied West Bank – Democracy Now! (April 22, 2024).
“Obvious Evidence of Genocide”: Mass Grave Discovered in Gaza’s Nasser Hospital – Olivia Rosane (Common Dreams,April 21, 2024).
The Memory of the Holocaust Is Abused by Zionists as a “Weapon”: An Interview with Norman Finkelstein – TRT World (April 19, 2024).
Nicaragua Takes Germany to the World Court for Facilitating Israel’s Genocide – Marjorie Cohn (TruthOut, April 13, 2024).
“Genocidal Actions” Persist in Gaza as Israel Blocks Aid and U.S. Weapons Flow – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, April 12, 2024).
Journalist Abby Martin Explains Why She Considers Israel’s Actions in Gaza to Constitute Genocide – Middle East Eye (April 3, 2024).
Briahna Joy Gray Unpacks IDF Lies About the Slaughter of World Central Kitchen Aid Workers in Gaza – Rising (April 3, 2024).
“A War Machine Out of Control”: Israel Keeps Attacking Aid Workers as Gaza Faces Famine – Democracy Now! (April 3, 2024).
Draft U.N, Report Finds Israel Has Met Threshold for Genocide – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, March 25, 2024).
As Israel Blocks More U.N. Aid, Gaza Is on the Brink of “Most Intense Famine” Since WW2 – Democracy Now! (March 25, 2024).
“Children Are Dying”: Doctor Just Back from Gaza Describes Severe Malnutrition and Preventable Infections – Democracy Now! (March 22, 2024).
U.N. Panel Says IDF Appears Set on “Physical Destruction of Palestinian Children” – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, March 22, 2024).
There Is No Moral Argument That Justifies the Sale of Weapons to Israel – Mary Lawlor (The Guardian, March 21, 2024).
Former U.S. Diplomat Says “Collaboration” in Gaza Genocide Could Make Biden “Target of Prosecution” – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, March 21, 2024).
The West Is Complicit in Israel’s Genocide – Yanis Varoufakis amd Raoul Martinez (Novara Media, February 17, 2024).
Why Must Palestinians Audition for Your Empathy? – Hala Alyan (Salt Lake Tribune, October 29, 2023).

UPDATES: Biden Condemned for Ahistorical and “Politically Suicidal” Attack on Campus Protests – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, May 2, 2024).
On Kent State Massacre Anniversary, Progressives Decry Repression of Student Protests – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, May 4, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Naomi Klein’s Powerful Words on Israel’s and the West’s Ongoing Gaza Genocide
• Outrage and Despair
• “This Is a Genocidal Project”
• “A Genocide Has Been Normalized”
• Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• More Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• Josh Paul: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• Michael Fakhri: Quote of the Day – February 27, 2024
• Sabrina Salvati: Quote of the Day – January 2, 2024
• Christmas 2023 – Reflections, Activism, Art, and Celebrations
• Jehad Abusalim: Quote of the Day – December 8, 2023
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Quote of the Day – November 2, 2023
• In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree
• Prayer of the Week – October 16, 2023
• Something to Think About – October 12, 2023
• Eric Levitz: Quote of the Day – October 11, 2023
• Phyllis Bennis: “If We Are Serious About Ending This Spiraling Violence, We Need to Look at Root Causes”
• “Nothing About Today is ‘Unprovoked’”
• “The Mistreatment and Discrimination Against Palestinians Is Not Unprecedented. It’s Baked Into the Foundation of the Political System in Israel”
• “Essential Viewing for All Who Care to Understand the Plight of the People of Palestine”
• Progressive Perspectives on the Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian “Nightmare” (2021)
• Something to Think About – July 29, 2018
• Noura Erakat: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
• For Some Jews, Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians is Yet Another Jewish Tragedy
• Remembering the Six-Day War and Its Ongoing Aftermath
• David Norris: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2014